United Spirits March quarter net profit declines to Rs 178.6 crore

For the fiscal ended March, USL's net profit increased to Rs 810.6 crore. It had reported a net profit of Rs 362.1 crore in the previous financial year. Its revenue from operations was at Rs 3,106.18 crore in 2021-22. This is 13.28 percent higher than Rs 2,741.85 crore in the year-ago period.

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The net sales increased 9.5 percent driven by resilient consumer demand in off-trade and gradual on-trade recovery. The Gross margin was 41.7 percent, down 220bps; impacted by rising inflation partly offset by favourable product mix and productivity,

For FY22, the company's net sales increased 18.9 percent. Underlying net sales increased 18.4%, excluding the one-off sale of bulk scotch. The Gross margin was 43.6 percent, up 25 bps, primarily driven by favourable product mix, productivity savings from everyday cost efficiencies and lapping a one-off inventory provision.

The EBITDA was at Rs 1,511 crore, up 53 percent. The EBITDA margin was 16.1 percent, up 358 bps primarily driven by fixed cost operating leverage and lapping one-off costs in the prior year. Excluding the one-off items, underlying EBITDA was up 276 bps.

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Hina Nagarajan, the CEO, said, "We have delivered another quarter of consistent top-line and resilient EBITDA performance. The broad-based growth in the Prestige & Above segment demonstrates resilient consumer demand, the strength of our portfolio and the focused execution of the strategy by the team. Strong cash flow generation is enabling reinvestment in sustainable long-term growth."

She said the company has acquired a strategic minority stake in Nao Spirits & Beverages Private Ltd, an emerging craft gin company in India, with award-winning brands 'Greater Than' and 'Hapusa'. "The investment provides us with an opportunity to strengthen participation in the fast-growing premium gin segment in India," Nagarajan said.

"We have just concluded the strategic review of the select Popular brands and the Board has approved the sale and franchising of this portfolio to an unrelated third party. This is a significant move to enable sharpened focus on ‘Prestige & Above’ and reshape our portfolio to help deliver our growth mission," she added.

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The results came after the close of the market hours. Shares of United Spirits ended at Rs 778.65, up by Rs 18.50, or 2.43 percent on the BSE.